With the Greenstar 8000 boiler in an LPG variant, Amy turned her cold and derelict barn into a newly renovated haven in the Worcestershire countryside.
Four years ago, Amy moved into a barn with half of the property having barely a roof let alone central heating. Since then, Amy and her partner have worked hard to transform this space, originally meant for livestock, into a beautiful, cosy, and warm home.
Last converted in 2000, the main living space was attached to another smaller barn which was derelict and not fit for living in. With extremely inefficient and out-dated electric storage heaters and no real living spaces, there was a lot of work to be done to turn this into Amy’s dream home.
Amy said:
“All we had downstairs to live off was an open plan, very old and tired kitchen and living space. That was it. No downstairs loo, no separate place to eat or anything like that. It did have a log burner which we used a lot; however, the primary heating source was electric storage heaters which were terrible. Quite quickly we realised that, as part of converting the other barn and knocking through and joining them both together, we'd probably have to completely rip out what was there and replace it."
As a Grade II listed property, the renovation came with its own set of hurdles regarding planning permission. Originally wanting a heat pump and solar panels, Amy had to consider alternative options.
"We considered a heat pump and some solar panels, but after speaking to the conservation officer, we weren't allowed to have solar panels on the roof. So that meant a heat pump was no longer viable for us. The best option that we found was LPG. In the end, we had a tank installed into a large hole in the garden to keep it hidden and out of the way.”
With a rather challenging renovation ahead of her, Amy spoke to her installer who took on board the complexities of her build.
She continued:
“It was a little bit of a headache for some installers to get their heads around and some felt the project wasn’t for them. Scott, our installer, came along and saw it as a challenge, and he wasn't fazed by anything. He recommended, given the area and size of the house, the Worcester Bosch Greenstar 8000 boiler.”
While Scott handled the technical side of installing the boiler, the radiators, and gas pipes, Amy and her partner put on their hard hats and installed the underfloor heating.
“We’ve had a whole new heating system installed. The downstairs has underfloor heating and it's zoned so you can turn it on and off in different areas. It's super reliable, so it comes on when we're here versus when we're not here. It's brilliant.”
Check out some more pictures of Amy's renovation
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